Dancer (CTL)

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Dancer is one of the sub-types of the Fairestseeming. Whether entertainer, courtesan, artist or murderer, the Dancers are happiest when moving to the sound of their inner rhythms. As creatures of particular agility and grace for whom motion is itself beauty and art, theirs is the blessing of the Fae Grace.

Contents

One aspect of beauty is grace. Dancers embody
this aspect in ways that many Fairest emulate, but few
can reach. Lightfooted, elegant and swift, a Dancer
is the very archetype of the faerie as something more
graceful than a human can hope to be. Though
Dancers’ durances were no more pleasant or fondly
remembered than those of any other Lost, Dancers
are unable to fully resent the gifts of agility and poise
they received in Arcadia.

The process of attaining
these gifts may have been tortuous and best forgotten, but the grace lingers with them every minute of
every day. Therefore, a Dancer is often among the
camp of Lost that tries to see the best of what they’ve
become, making the most of their blessings even if
they regret having to go to Arcadia to receive them.
Of course, for those not as beautiful and elegant as a
Dancer, it’s a hard line to swallow.

The most distinguishing feature of a Dancer is
her agility. Every physical motion is imbued with added grace, no matter how small. This is a quality that
cannot be entirely disguised by the Mask — Dancers stand out in a crowd, if anyone is watching. Even
the way they neatly place their feet when walking is
an indication of their instinctive agility and precision. Beyond that shared preternatural grace, though,
Dancers vary widely in appearance. Some are pale
and faintly luminescent, almost ethereal; others have
pale skin marked with whorls of color.

Many Dancers were literally taken to
dance. They spent endless nights in glass ballrooms,
waltzing with the Fae until the Dancers’ feet bled.
They capered on stages, tied to invisible strings. They
were placed on red-hot bronze so that their Keepers could watch their cavorting. Sometimes Dancers
were taken to act as partners, sometimes just to be
display objects.

Other Dancers were given the blessing of great
agility for other purposes, perhaps salacious. A human taken as a sexual slave may not have been sufficiently… limber to entertain a Keeper without some
modifications. The castle of a Keeper might have
been built of narrow swords laid across deep chasms,
where the servants were required to learn exquisite
balance simply to keep their lives.
Whatever the reason a Dancer was taken, his
preternatural grace may have been the result of arduous effort, odd elixirs or bizarre surgeries.

Dancing is a common element in faerie
folklore. Traditional fairy-tale elements may make interesting components when recast in the shadowed
language of the Gentry — red shoes, rings of white
mushrooms, secret dancing halls deep under the
earth. Many faeries are described as dancing rather
than walking when seen, and a Dancer may have had
to become what she is simply to keep up.